“Oh! Oh child!” the Hermit shouted unusually loudly after only shuffling a good ten steps. The young man had already begun to question him and his intent. He did not see that there was no time for talking, there was shuffling needing to be done. “I did not mean to startle you!” 
He began once again to shuffle through the sand after slowly turning back around to face his heading. He liked to kick up the sand as he shuffled, the small eruptions of dusty grain soothed his frail mind and made a crooked smile stretch across his withering face. His teeth were crooked, rotting and full of eminent gaps, but he smiled anyway and without reservation. 
His euphoria was cut short once more. 

[i]“Sir, you'd be right in guessing that I'm lost but I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about. Are you native to this region? I can't say I've ever been here before. I'm- how did I get here…”[/i] the young lad asked. 

The Hermit stopped dead in his shuffled tracks. He planted his gnarled walking stick into the dust and leant on it once again. He pivoted slowly to face the young man and do his best to answer his questions as best as his puzzled and cryptic mind would allow. 

“A native? Oh, [i]heh heh heh[/i],” He cackled, coughing dryly as he did so. “I do say! There are no natives here! Don’t be so silly!” he began to crack up again. “I am here for the same reason you are here! [i]Heh heh heh[/i],” 

He stood upright again, as though he were a different man entirely, one who did not need the support of a walking stick to prevent falling flat to the ground. “I say! What a lovely day it is out today!”

There was no wind. The cold had once again begun to creep upon the dunes, enriching like some snake of bitter chills, weaving between the horizon and the disturbed land masterfully and easily, as though no obstruction could keep it from it’s goal. “You are here because you, like everyone else, got into a pickle. You managed to die. But that’s okay! You are just transitioning. Like a pilgrimage.” 

The man was clearly confused. He continued to question  [i]where[/i] they were in the world. As if a specific point here could be pinpointed. “Well! he shouted unusually loudly, as though he were screaming for no apparent reason, “Why don’t you look at your map? Can you see the wide open plains? We are in the wide open plains before the smoky forest before the castle before the mountain before the-“ he stopped. He did not wish to continue that train of thoughts. 

“You are between. Between worlds. Betwixt some sort of eternal light.” 

He spun inhumanly fast to face his heading once more, before regaining the composure of a frail old man. He began to shuffle. Shuffle. Shuffle. Shuffle through the sands. He gestured the same gesture from before, beckoning the man to follow. 

“Come, I’ll do what I can to explain. But for now we have to find somebody else to fight off the Knight! There is a man. I haven’t met him yet but I think his name is Remly… or… Renny. Or… Rider. Riley? I’m sure he will be dying to meet us too. But we have to shuffle fast to get to him, the turn of the light approaches.”